Friday, 17 February 2017

IT'S INCREDIBLE that 10 years after leaving Downing Street, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair still provokes as much bile and vitriol as we have seen today.

His 'crime' this time? To dare to suggest the British people voted to leave without knowing Brexit's terms and conditions and opine that a space existed where he and other people could persuade voters to change their minds.

Basically the former PM is suggesting the sort of insurgency which has brought the likes of Farage, Nuttall, Le Pen and President Trump to the fore except this time in reverse.

His speech has predictably been ripped to shreds by the Brexiteers and the media who whip out their favourite 'affront to democracy' lines when anyone dares suggest Brexit isn't full of milk and honey.

However on this Blair is spot on. The British people did vote leave without knowing the terms and conditions of an exit and a space does exist to change people's minds....it's called the Her Majesty's official opposition.

In a single speech, Blair has done more to oppose Brexit than Jeremy Corbyn has since June 23, 2016 and shown a clear, decisive approach to what is a thorny issue for the Labour Party.

Let's remember the current 'opposition' to the Government have pretty much waived Brexit through the House of Commons, yes amendments were tabled but they failed and many Labour MPs still voted in favour apart from a hardy few who stuck to their principles.

The Liberal Democrats have been principled opponents as have the SNP but the overwhelming narrative is Brexit MUST happen. No, the ATMs must have money, our hospitals must have doctors and nurses and our schools must have teachers.

Against this backdrop, a tissue of lies and half-truths and hypocrisy has been allowed to be 'the norm' and to go unchallenged for fear of being labelled 'unpatriotic'.

It was wonderful to see the Foreign Secretary tear into Mr Blair....Because we all know Boris led the Leave campaign with facts, not with lies such as buses promising £350million extra for the NHS .....

This would be understandable had our nation voted overwhelmingly to leave, such as the 10 percentage point result of the Scottish referendum result. But Brexit was decided by less than the three percentage point margin of error used in all opinion polls.

It was also decided by a margin previously described by Nigel Farage as 'unfinished business' had it been the opposite way around......but shhh we aren't allowed to talk about that.

It's therefore right for someone to squeeze into the gap and pose the awkward questions, because Brexit should only mean Brexit if we can negotiate an exit which ensures our wonderful isle can continue to prosper.

That should be the message from the Labour Party but while Her Majesty's official opposition continues its breakdown, running scared of UKIP while taking even further away from its core voters, then the space exists for someone to exploit.

Tuesday, 7 February 2017

Halfway through the House of Commons debate on Article 50 and Labour MPs are resigning, Conservative MPs are seriously falling out with their own party's whips and there are so many amendments being suggested that we could be here until Christmas debating them.

Why? Could it be the sheer vacuous nature of the original referendum question put to voters? It simply asked leave or remain when in truth a lot more information should have been provided in the event of a leave vote. It wasn't even made legally binding.....

Did all those wanting to leave want a 'hard Brexit'? Indeed did anyone want a 'soft Brexit' or is everyone so fed up now that all they want is a 'stiff G and T'!

As a remain voter you'd probably expect criticism of the current situation but I do so not to over-turn the democratically decided result but simply to shine a light on the mess in our Parliament.

A decision which will last for the ages has been hijacked by the alt right in this country to deliver a warts an all exit which a) we don't know if we will get from the EU and b) could do untold damage to our economy for generations to come.

Yes, the economy is doing OK at the moment thank you very much but we haven't got divorced from the EU yet. The only way to gauge the health of the economy is when we have packed up our things and left her for good.

The truth is satire and real life have blended into one almighty daily shambles where politicians of all sides have cast aside pretty much anything else for 'Brexit, Brexit, Brexit'.

Answering the Europe question was supposed to heal the Conservative party when in fact all that has taken place is some serious war wounds have been brutally picked open.

Labour is....well Labour, confused, muddled and rather like me on a treadmill - lots of noise but no real end result.

The Liberal Democrats are trying to step in as the anti Hard Brexit party and oppose the Government but when you can fit all their MPs into a booth at Wetherspoons its not easy to oppose more than 300 on the other side.

The Greens' don't want to leave at all like the SNP but any chance of upsetting the applecart is again thwarted by numbers.

The blame here should go to former Prime Minister David Cameron and his 'Deal or No Deal' referendum. Like on the Channel 4 show, voters were asked to open one of two boxes without truly knowing what was inside...

A poor piece of party management and a craven bid to win votes has reduced this process to an almighty shambles. Don't think the EU powerbrokers aren't watching and laughing.

No vote on the final deal could well cost the PM her premiership. She is walking the narrowest of tightropes; fall and the consequences are shattering, stay true and take a walk into the unknown.

We're leaving, but this divorce won't be a quickie, it will be messy and truly shambolic and to paraphrase the late Geoffrey Howe, our team captain is heading to the middle with a broken bat.

"There is no plan, they (the Government) should have had a plan," the words of Faisal Islam, Sky's political editor on June 26,2016.

Saturday, 4 February 2017

THE ESTEEMED John Cross tells us in the Daily Mirror you want
to ‘feel loved’ before you sign a new two year deal, a contract you will once
again observe to the day I’m sure.

All true Gooners do love you Arsene, you are the greatest
modern-day Arsenal manager and we have memories to cherish until our dying
days. The first double including that phenomenal run to haul Manchester United’s
12 point lead in and of course 2002 when we won it in their backyard.

None of us will ever forget 2003/4, the unbeaten season
during which you and the players delivered the best football I have ever seen
from an Arsenal team.

Those were seasons where we felt everyone was aiming high,
pushing each other to win, win and win again. Since then I suspect many Gooners
including myself feel an attitude of ‘that’ll do’ is the message, much of it
coming from you.

We understand moving home was a nightmare financially and
meant we had to sell the best players, but please remember before the move us
fans were told it wouldn’t affect the team.

We do appreciate your loyalty and understand others wanted
to prize you away, but that doesn’t mean we will just accept things.

And we do appreciate Champions League football every year
Arsene and the stadium you enabled to be built. Personally if the Emirates deal
ever ends I would be happy for us to play at the AW Stadium

But too often in the Champions League we end up throwing it
away against sides we should beat or rest players in the group stages and end
up with a harder draw in the knockout phases.

Arsene, we also pay some of the highest ticket prices in the
country so it’s massively galling to see our team get so close and throw things
away.

The Carling Cup final in 2008, we should have beaten
Birmingham out of sight yet we went into the game thinking it was won already.
AC Milan were disposed of in the Champions League 3-0 at our place, just a
shame we were 4-0 down from the first game!

Put simply, when the pressure is on, a lot of us now think
an Arsenal team under you cannot handle it.

Last year we beat Manchester City at the Emirates to go top
of the league at Christmas. We then won just two out of the next seven league
games and went a month without a victory.

We don’t understand Arsene how Leicester, a team which was
all but relegated the Christmas before, held it all together to win the league.
A team we beat home and away.

We struggle to understand how the current very talented team
isn’t running away with the league like Chelsea – under a manager in his first
season in English football.

And Arsene, we don’t like the fact them lot down the road
seem to be building a pretty decent team!

We have a huge, beautiful stadium, a cracking team which you
have assembled but then we lose to Watford, go 3-0 down to Bournemouth and inch
past Preston North End.

We are football fans Arsene, we are forever asking ourselves
‘Would this happen to Man United, Chelsea etc’ and nine times out of 10 it
wouldn’t.

That’s why we are frustrated and yes angry with things. We don’t
want ‘that’ll do’ mentality, we want the Arsenal of old, the flourishing
football with an insane desire to win trophies.

You are your own man and make your own decisions Arsene and
we will always respect that.

If this is the end though, please be assured all true
Gooners, even your fiercest critics will stand and applaud as you leave and
thank you for taking a football club in a right state when you arrived in 1996
and putting us among Europe’s elite.

We do love you Arsene, but we love Arsenal Football Club as
well. It was here before us and it will outlast us all too.